Aria held the reconstruction notice beside his center while StarGuard sealed the failing channels and the Goddess kept his bonds. The residue shoved against that boundary as its inward route slammed shut, leaving him aware of everything and commanding nothing.
Aria cut the rejected flow away from the living foundation instead of forcing more power down the wrecked road.
"Stabilization holds, reconstruction can begin," she said, "keep your attention on the anchor and do not follow what leaves the wound."
"Easy for you to say, you're not the one it's leaving," Hajin rasped, clinging to the three familiar connections while the pain hunted for somewhere new, "that thing feels damn attached to the rest of me."
"It entered through your channels."
"The procedure separates the contamination before rebuilding them, it does not declare the source harmless and invite more inside."
'Good, I don't need a better throat for swallowing the same damn mistake.'
